I think you're probably there.
We did a bycatch study last year with the outfitters on both the Miramichi and Restigouche rivers. They were allowed to keep any striped bass caught above the tidewater. There were 16 caught in the Restigouche and 13 caught in the Miramichi. The stomach studies of those fish indicated there was less than 2% salmon parr in there; 90% were empty. Most were crustaceans. Those dive studies are available. I have put it on my USB for the members to consider.
That's a capacity issue. That is the small, young-of-the-year fish that they're seeing up there. It's not the big spawning fish that will come into the river for two or three weeks and then immediately leave the river. There is 90% of the parr that come down the Southwest Miramichi, and 90% of the striped bass that go up the Northwest Miramichi.
Mother Nature does a great job at managing this, but during heavy rains and high flows in the spring we are seeing that affecting the striped bass' ability.... As Mr. Mallet said, the water temperatures have to be perfect for that fish, and they take advantage of that.
We have to be careful that we manage this. I would not want to see the stock go below 300,000. We need that buffer. If we don't have that buffer, then we get back to endangered species again and we've lost the economic benefit that we enjoy today.